The present invention relates to a composite recording apparatus, more particularly, to an apparatus and, capable of designating a position at which an image of an original (referred to also as the original image) to be recorded or copied is inserted onto the display device or an area in the vicinity of a copy board.
In recent years, there has been developed a system in which an external information source such as an output printer of a computer or like information source is combined with an electrophotographic copying apparatus to thereby supply external information to the copying apparatus in the form of an electric signal, whereby the electric signal is reproduced as an electrostatic latent image on a light sensitive (photoconductive) medium through a scanning reproducing means such as an optical fiber tube provided in the copying apparatus. The electrostatic latent image is then recorded on a recording sheet such as, for example, a transfer sheet of plain paper as a visible image after electrophotographic processing, whereby a composite image is obtained which includes in a suitable combination an image of an original reproduced through conventional exposure and development techniques and the image reproduced from the external information in the manner described above.
For preparing a composite image in the composite information recording apparatus, the image to be reproduced from external information and the original image have to be preparatorily edited on a display device such as a CRT tube to prepare a text of the composite image information. By way of example, it is assumed that an original image A (i.e. an image of an original) is to be arrayed at a middle portion of a recording sheet 1 while statement information B and C for elucidating the original image A are positioned above and below the image information, as is illustrated in FIG. 1. According to a hitherto known technique, operator OP (FIG. 2) first prepares the statement information with the aid of a keyboard 2, stores that information in an internal memory, and at the same time displays the information as an image B' on a display device 3 for editing text. Next, the operator prepares the statement information C with the aid of the keyboard 2 and stores it in the internal memory while an area A' allotted for insertion of the original image A is left blank on the display device 3. The statement information C thus prepared is also displayed as an image C' on the display device. For providing the area A' for the original image, the operator has to read the width of the original from the position of sliders or wipers 4b relative to a scale 4c provided in the vicinity of copy board 4a and perform a line-feeding operation in the keyboard 2 for the number of lines corresponding to the area A'. The sliders 4b are previously fixedly positioned in accordance with the width of the original 5 disposed on the copy board 4a of the composite information recording apparatus. With the boundary between the original image A and the statement information B on the recording sheet 1 represented by P.sub.1 and the boundary between the original image A and the statement information C being represented by P.sub.2, it should be mentioned that great difficulty has been heretofore encountered in determining the boundaries P.sub.1 and P.sub.2 on the display device 3 when editing the text. This is particularly the case where the external information image and the original image are to be arrayed in a complicated composition, in that a very troublesome procedure is required for determining the boundaries between the discrete images, resulting in reduced efficiency in the text editing procedure.
A general arrangement of a typical composite information recording apparatus as understood is shown in FIG. 6. Referring to this figure, the recording apparatus denoted generally by reference numeral 20 includes a copy board 21 adapted to support thereon an original such as a document and to be reciprocally moved over a main body of the recording apparatus 20, an exposure lamp assembly 22 for illuminating an original M disposed on the copy board 21, and an optical system which is composed of a first mirror 23, a lens 24, and a second mirror 25 for leading reflected light from the original M to a light-sensitive drum 26, to thereby project an image of the original on a light-sensitive layer 26a such as of selemium disposed around the periphery of the drum 26. A mechanical shutter 27 is disposed in an optical path of the optical system and is adapted to open or interrupt the optical path through operation of actuator means 28 provided with a solenoid. On the other hand, disposed around the light-sensitive drum 26 are a charging device 29, a developing device 30, a transfer electrode 31, a separating electrode 32, a charge removing electrode 33 and a cleaning device 34, successively, and additionally a scanning reproducing means 35 which is disposed upstream of the developing device 30 as viewed in the rotating direction of the drum 26 and adapted to convert external information supplied in the form of an electric signal into an optical image which is then projected onto the light-sensitive layer 26a. Such scanning reproducing means 35 may be composed of an optical fiber tube, a thin wall tube, a laser ray scanner device or the like. Reference numeral 36 denotes a recording sheet tray for accommodating therein a stack of recording sheets K, 37 designates a transporting system for transporting recording sheets K after the image transfer has been made, 38 designates a fixing device for fixing a composite image transferred onto the recording sheet, and, finally, the numeral 39 denotes an exit tray for receiving thereon the recording sheets K having the fixed composite image.
When a composite image is to be produced with the aid of the composite information recording apparatus described above, the external information to be combined with the information of the original or document is usually supplied from an input device such as a word processor, keyboard or the like, whereby addition of the composite image to be produced is preparatorily effected using a display device for editing. For editing the composite image, a display device 40 and a keyboard 41 such as shown in FIG. 7 may be used. More specifically, the external information signals representing characters, symbols or the like are loaded by correspondingly manipulating keys or buttons 42a of the keyboard 41 by an operator. The input information is then displayed on a display screen 40a of the display device 40 on a line-by-line base. At that time, a bright spot mark M (usually referred to as a cursor) is produced on the display screen 40a at one side thereof for indicating a position for the information to be next input. Assuming that a composite image is to be constituted by inserting document information A available from the original between the information B and C to be loaded with the aid of the keyboard 41, then the editing procedure is performed in the manner described below. At first, the information B is loaded through corresponding operation of the keyboard 41. Next, the cursor M (P.sub.1) located at the end position P.sub.1 of the information B is shifted downwardly by a number of lines which corresponds to the height of the original or document image A, whereby the cursor is now located at position P.sub.2. Subsequently, the keyboard 41 is again operated to load the information C. Alternatively, the information B and C may be successively loaded and thereafter the cursor M (P.sub.1) placed between the information area B and the information area C, to thereby shift the information area C downwardly by a number of lines corresponding to the height of the document or original image. In this manner, the text for a single composite image is prepared on the display screen 40a of the display device 40, whereby the composition as well as contents of the composite image can be previously confirmed. In this conjunction, it should however be noted that there is no association or relation between the position of the cursor displayed on the text and the actual operation for designating or setting the location for the document. In other words, in this composite information recording apparatus, designation of the location for the document has relied on manual setting of position designating sliders SL.sub.1 and SL.sub.2 in FIG. 6 (corresponding to sliders 4b in FIG. 2) at the boundaries of the original or document which are estimatingly determined through calculation of the area to be allotted for the document image (i.e. the number of lines multiplied by an inter-line spacing) independently of the position of the cursor in the text for addition.